The Nigerian Marketing Research Association has said it will provide a private sector alternative to economic data following the National Bureau of Statistics website hack.
NIMRA President, Seyi Adeoye, in a telephone interview, told Saturday PUNCH the hack, resulting in the NBS website being inaccessible since December 18, 2024, showed the need for private sector participation in providing economic data alongside the NBS to aid business and government decision-making.
Adeoye said, “(The NBS website hack) just shows that it is important for private practitioners within the data analytics space to do a lot more and also collaborate more closely with NBS and with all the global organisations also interested in having data about Nigeria and the economy, like the World Bank.”
He condemned the NBS website hack while acknowledging it gave urgency to the need for alternatives: “What happened with NBS just totally brought it to the fore and in our face more, that this cannot be the case. It’s not ideal. It’s not what is obtainable in other climes; we need to change that.
“And we will do that. That’s the commitment I’m putting out. We’re actively starting from having consultations and then beginning to roll out the studies and put the data out there into the public domain. The private sector and the government will begin to use those data points to plan.”
Earlier, it was reported that NIMRA had, during its 2024 Annual General Meeting, disclosed plans to “contribute to the country’s economic development by championing reliable data and market insights.”
NIMRA reiterated the need for bringing more datasets to the public domain, including household expenditure and other socioeconomic classification data.
“It is a major thrust for us this year. We are going to organise a roundtable forum and begin to tackle some of these things like household expenditure survey data,” Adeoye submitted. “It won’t be just NBS. We will also bring our expertise and then there will be different data points.
“Socioeconomic classification is another one that we’re going to do. And then having data for national planning. All of that is key for us this year.”
NIMRA’s president noted the need for multiple local large data-gathering organisations to help with comparison and analysis.
He added, “Look at the International Monetary Fund and then you have the World Bank. All of them (put) estimate out and everything and then you compare, right? But there’s no comparison with NBS and that’s it pretty much. That will change this year.”
Adeoye stated the marketing research body will collaborate with NBS, bringing the agency together with private practitioners to co-create data points.
Further, the NIMRA president urged more investment in cyber security as important in an age of data, while acknowledging the global challenge of cyberattacks.
“It’s not just Nigeria. It’s a global phenomenon,” Adeoye asserted. “I think the U.S. Treasury also, their own data collateral was hacked and they came out and said it was China. The real focus should then be that for assets like NBS, we must employ and deploy the highest standard of cyber security possible so that some guys will not get crazy and attack.
“As you know, if you can create it, it can be dismantled. If human beings are the ones writing the codes to protect it, it means they (hackers) also know that there are back walls that they can go through to bring it down.
“We have to put our best foot forward all the time. If we’re going to have this kind of (data) on NBS and our portals, then it must be best-in-class cyber security that we deploy.”
It was earlier reported that the NBS spokesperson, Joel Ichedi, maintained the agency’s website was not shut down indefinitely but experienced delays due to the holiday break.
Ichedi assured of the website’s restoration, noting, “An important website like ours cannot be shut down indefinitely. The public can rest assured. We are working on it and very soon it will be working.”